Monday, June 7, 2010

When Jason Hammel starts avoiding the disaster inning, he'll turn into one damn solid starter in a big league rotation.

Seems Hammel has gotten, or is in the process of getting over that hump. A good indication of that was tonight's second inning. The first two batters reached on infield singles. If anything is a recipe for disaster, it's making two solid pitches, forcing two weak swings, and getting no outs to show for it.

That didn't happen tonight. Hammel got the 6-3 double play off the bat of Tommy Manzella, then struck out the pitcher to end the threat. Hammel did a pretty good job of limiting his traffic from that point on, but the real key to his success was that great pitch when the situation called for a great pitch. A hit allowed there and who knows which direction this game goes in. Offense

I was especially encouraged by Brad Hawpe taking one the other way for a hit. Olivo and Mora also did a good job focusing on rightcenter field. I wish we saw more of that when this team was on the road.

Overall this goes down as one of the more solid Rockies wins on the season. That's despite a 9th inning that featured a mild drama. Unfortunately it resulted in Tracy using Manny Corpas in a game that was 5-0 going into the 9th, but it's not a terrible big deal because he was warming a little when it was still 3-0.

Manny needed only 4 pitches to close it out.

You know what I'm noticing? I have far fewer thoughts when the Rockies play well and win. Let's pull for another quick recap tomorrow.